The “year of citizens’ rights”

Going to try not to buy goods from China anymore. That will align with my ecological views and my political views...

In Sentence of Activist, China Gives West a Chill

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: December 26, 2009

Human rights advocates said the punishment for Liu Xiaobo was intended to send an unequivocal message to others who might agitate for political reform.


But this will make it hard to do...um, make that impossible.

Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively

By KEITH BRADSHER

Published: December 26, 2009

Some renewable energy technologies rely on a group of elements called rare earths, but they mainly come from environmentally damaging mines in China.

New Website Address

I've put a new website up at http://montagaelmay.com.

It's the same design with new galleries of my visual art work added. There are four galleries: mosaic work (which if you've been reading this blog for very long you have seen most of the mosaics); sculpture; Interstices (a two artist show I participated in); and a gallery of encaustic Artist Trading Cards.

There's also a selection of my written stories, and a bit more about me and my art practice and my views on sustainable living.

Hammer & Hardie

The hammer and hardie have shipped (notification came at 8:30pm tonight - thanks Di Mosaico). I should have them on Thursday.

I've been waiting on the tools before doing any significant work on the dragon mosaic. I'm also still waiting to order some more smalti - a result of the Great Debit Card Debacle...

Once our new cards arrive I will probably order a few more pounds of smalti in a few more colors. They've mailed the cards, but we haven't had them arrive yet. Hopefully they'll arrive soon (so I can spend more money on glass).

A Step Toward a More Manageable Life

Tonight I deleted over 3000 emails from my Gmail inbox (over 500 of them were unread emails...) and canceled subscriptions to a great many email newsletters and distribution lists. I feel liberated

Now I need to do the same with my work email...

Dragon Mosaic Progress

Haven't posted a progress update for a while - here's the mosaic after tonight's work (at approximately 24 hours of work):

The photo was taken at an angle to avoid excessive reflection from the studio lights and the flash on the camera. I really need to build a set up for photographing mosaics - some photo-floodlights with diffusers and some sort of stand or prop - I don't add the hanging hardware until a mosaic is finished.

I'm still waiting on the hammer and hardie. The company I ordered them from was out of hardies, but expects them to come in on Monday or Tuesday. They promised, when I spoke with them last night, to ship the tools as soon as the hardies come in.

I need to get a bit more smalti - I had intended to get some yellows and yellow-oranges, some black and some dark indigo blue. I thought I might get a pound of the yellows/oranges each and then maybe skip the black and get several pounds of the dark indigo blue. If I do that I'll pull up the black background and do the background in the blue. The dark indigo blue has a considerable amount of black in it and I think it would give the piece much more depth than doing it with the black and a random smattering of the indigo blue and the really dark green.  But I'd need at least 5 pounds of the stuff, which, at nearly $20/lb (when you consider the added shipping costs), would make the next purchase over $150 if I got the indigo blue and the necessary yellows and yellow-oranges...

Still, I think it will make the piece a much better one.